Thanks, Jim. That is indeed grim news for us Kalifornians. Who knows
what will happen to those of us here with Subie conversions but if I
were thinking about doing one and I lived here, I would get it done
sooner than later. Maybe Subie converts will get lucky and get a few
years of slack grandfathered in if the conversion becomes illegal here
in CA. But maybe not.

Jeff / San Anselmo
On Sep 3, 2008, at 10:01 PM, Jim Akiba wrote:

> No, unfortunately it's not possible to obtain an EO for swaps from
> anything 96(OBDII) and newer simply because the CARB refuses to look
> at it(a soft policy decision it seems). The zone III loophole and
> potentially a case by case BAR sticker(we're working on an attempt)
> are the only options in CA that aren't illegal outright, and things
> are getting much worse for CA folks faster by the minute. Not only did
> they roll out the LPFET(Low pressure Fuel Evaporative Test) and not
> grandfather anything, they are quickly approaching new legislation
> that is looking more an more like Japanese and German efforts to
> legally force fleet overturn(which they really need in CA), but the
> problem is even people that are trying to help are going to get caught
> in the wave and pressed out. It'll be exceedingly difficult to own a
> vanagon in coming years I would imagine.
>
> The new legislation for catalytic converters just went into effect in
> July making it impossible to buy a used certified catalytic
> converter(which can be read big OEM bucks if you need a new cat, esp
> since no aftermarket SULEV cats have gotten CARB certification either
> which will start to matter for early 00 vehicles getting older), and
> they dumped all CAP(consumer assistance program) funding repair
> assistance, if it's done and you can't spring for it, you're done and
> you have to buy another car which presumably you can't since you can't
> afford to repair the old one. Jan 1, 2010 the new diesel emissions
> testing for GVWR<12,000lbs starts as well, so if you have pie in the
> sky dreams of a newer TDI in your vanagon that won't be able to happen
> anymore either since there is no way you're going to be able to
> maintain the full emissions system in a vanagon conversion with the
> tdi. I always thought it was completely backwards that the diesel
> conversions(which tend to be gross polluters by gas standards) were a
> loophole, and you could convert to diesel from gas and not need a smog
> check.. especially where they are so utterly consumed with particulate
> emissions now.... but that's been taken care of and will stop in just
> over a year.
>
> Slowly and surely they are sewing up the loopholes, and getting more
> cutthroat in their aim to remove old cars from the road... I can see
> where they are coming from since the percent of cars over 100k miles
> registered in CA jumped from 17% to 41% in only five years(95-00) and
> caused a nice push for the legislation that is coming on-line today...
> it is a perfect storm of popular cause, misinformation, doing the
> right thing, and not caring(odd combo but it's working)... but
> unfortunately as they try to reach the big goal, folks like us are
> going to get crushed in the melee. It makes no difference that the
> conversion is demonstrably WAY cleaner than not only the original
> engine, but also the ej22 conversion which IS still legal. It also
> makes no difference that we can make a light truck(vanagon) into an
> SULEV in two days... they don't want a clean vanagon, they want a
> clean new car. A clean vanagon doesn't put any money into the pockets
> of the people they need help and understanding from(the car companies
> and EPA, which is effectively the car companies again) to pass the
> most aggressive mobile source emissions legislation in the world. They
> are doing the right thing, and doing it for the right reasons, but it
> still ticks me off since there is zero room to account for any scope
> other than the fleet itself it seems. I would think there will be a
> backlash at some point, but there seems to be no slowdown, and things
> are picking up speed in the other direction still. I'm glad I don't
> live in CA, I would feel ignored and betrayed while torn since it is
> actually the right approach given the circumstances. We'll see what
> happens when we get to a BAR ref when the time comes, but even then
> there will never be a guarantee for the next guy... and it'll add
> about $1500 to the cost of conversion. I still haven't given up, and
> we will eventually find a solution that works for die-hard owners, but
> not many will likely be left around by then it would seem.
>
> *sigh*
>
> Jim Akiba
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 7:34 PM, Jeffrey Vickers <jeff@vickersdesign.com
> > wrote:
>> Did Zetec get a a CA CARB exemption?
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sep 3, 2008, at 3:50 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>>
>>> Date:    Wed, 3 Sep 2008 13:45:42 -0700
>>> From:    Dave Mari <vw4x41987@YAHOO.COM>
>>> Subject: John Wessels Glori's Import offering Zetec & Subie engine
>>> conversions
>>>
>>> John Wessels Glori's Import shop is now offering Zetec & Subie
>>> engine conve=
>>> rsions, see below:)
>>> =A0
>>>
>>>
>>> --- On Wed, 9/3/08, euromog@aol.com <euromog@aol.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> From: euromog@aol.com <euromog@aol.com>
>>> Subject: [syncro.org] Now offering engine conversions
>>> To: Syncro@yahoogroups.com, syncrolist@yahoogroups.com
>>> Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 3:34 PM
>>
>